On a cold and frosty morning

[venta]

Today's burning question: does anyone actually like dried mulberries?

My box o' nibbles from Graze[*] arrived today. One of the things it contained was a snack called "round the mulberry bush" (they name all their snacks, I don't know why) which contained raisins and dried white mulberries.

Dried mulberries look like dessicated clumps of insect eggs. When eaten, they have a nasty dry texture to the outside and a disturbingly (especially given their appearance) squodgy texture on the inside. They appear to taste like raisins - presumably due to proximity - so I'm assuming they don't have a whole lot of taste themselves.



See? Scary, aren't they?

I'm not sure I want to finish the box off, but I'm fearing that they might hatch if I don't. But if I do, they might hatch in me....

Even the other pictures of mulberries on Wikipedia all look vaguely frightening.

Will anyone speak out for the mulberry?

[*] In defence of Graze, the things they usually send me are very nice. I have loads of get-a-free-box codes if anyone wants to try them out.

Comments

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mulberries are also impossible to sell in shops, because when ripe they immediately crush and leave extremely staining juice all over everywhere.

A blueberry is just an American version of a bilberry though -- bigger, too sweet, lacking in flavour. And bilberries are dead easy to grow if you have the right sort of moorland (eg. most of Scotland).

[motodraconis.livejournal.com]

I'd happily eat bilberries too given the chance, but I've never seen them for sale or ever been offered any to taste.

Redcurrants and blackcurrants I grew up with, we grew them in the garden and it was my job to pick them every year. They're just no fun fresh and have to be cooked into pies or made into jams, and even then they're stupidly fiddly and over seedy. I prefer to eat my berries fresh but they're no good for that. (Though I'm told there are special fresh eating varieties out there.)

Proper (sweet eating) gooseberries I do miss though.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Yes :( Not that long ago it even seemed to be quite hard to buy rhubarb, but there seems to be lots more of that about now.

There are several fruits that I'd love to buy (admittedly to cook with, rather than eat fresh) but as far as I can tell the only way to get them is to know someone who has a tree. Things like damsons, or crabapples - never in shops at all.

Later this year I'm hoping to make bramble, elderberry and apple ham as there seem to be so many elder trees and bramble bushes growing on wasteland near where I've moved to.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

The brambles are doing really well this year. I'm hoping to find time to go out picking soon.

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Ours have come in quite early -- have had to pick a load already. (I say "ours", I mean the ones at the back of T's allotment.)

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, I had that depressing currant experience as a child too, it put me off them for quite a while. But fortunately a couple of years ago we got given a lovely blackcurrant bush for the garden here that can just be eaten fresh.

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

You sound like you might know... why can't we get damsons commercially? The only time I ever find the fruit, as opposed to the jam (which is also ridiculously hard to find, usually only represented by one brand), is when I go to the village I grew up in and buy it from the WI or school fete or similar. Because there are damson trees in a couple of gardens there. I don't even know anyone with damson trees, and I know a surprising number of people with fruit trees.

(I have looked into buying one but time has always been against me when I had the money, and vice versa. They're quite a bit more expensive than apple trees.)

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

It's largely because damsons don't fruit very reliably, so there aren't many commercial growers. Plus they're quite sharp and popular tastes, particularly in recent years, have been towards sweeter fruits and vegetables (think 'sugarsnap' peas and 'supersweet' baby sweetcorn).

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Damsons are a closed book to me, I'm afraid (Damsons in Distress, by Prunus Drupe), but what valkyriekaren says above sounds very plausible.